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MSNBC produced a slideshow of voter portraits. After viewing just a few photos, though, I could accurately guess the voter’s allegiance. For example, every single African American pictured is voting for Barack Obama. The lobbyist in a business suit is supporting John McCain. The hip young people tend to lean Democratic. The older rural white men are all Republicans. (Well, duh.) While I appreciate the diversity of American citizens featured, the voting populace is full of surprises, and I wish the slideshow reflected some of those instead of reinforcing stereotypes according to the conventional wisdom of demographics.

Tangentially, speaking of demographics, do you know about Generation Jones? Born between 1954 and 1965, “Jonesers” occupy the recently acknowledged generation between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. For decades, Jonesers had been imprecisely lumped in with Baby Boomers, but their life experiences have been very different from those of Boomers. Instead of worrying about getting drafted into the Vietnam War or dancing in mud at Woodstock, Jonesers were listening to punk rock on their way to the unemployment office in the late ’70s and wondering when Ronald Reagan would get around to mentioning AIDS in the ’80s. (The name Generation Jones, according to Wikipedia, “derives from the slang term jonesing, referring to the unrequited cravings felt by this generation of unfulfilled expectations.”) Both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are members of Generation Jones, and the Jonesers bloc comprises a potentially large number of swing voters.

Over the years I’ve developed a pathological fear of boredom, and subsequently a fear of mundane activities that lead to boredom, like waiting at the airport (especially at night), exercising (if it’s routine and not, say, a hike in an unfamiliar area), or cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. I like to keep my mind occupied; sometimes my own thoughts are enough, and sometimes they’re just not. For when my thoughts aren’t enough, and there’s nothing good on the radio, I listen to my favorite podcasts.

The irony? Alas, there is simply not enough time — even counting the stretches of boring time during aforementioned mundane activities — to listen to everything I want to, so the podcasts not yet listened to stack up in a sometimes overwhelming queue. I’ve realized that podcasts are like books or recorded TV shows: I probably won’t get to everything, but it comforts me to know they’re there, promising a rich intellectual landscape in which to escape from a wasteland of ennui.

Most radio programs are podcasted these days, although listeners often have to pay for podcasts of commercial radio programs. Fortunately, public radio — National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI) in particular — for many listeners, represents the epitome of quality radio programming; and the podcasts are often available for free.

My absolute favorite, can’t-miss program is the quirky, compelling This American Life, hosted by affable mensch Ira Glass. (And it occasionally includes David Sedaris reading his own short stories.) A podcast of this weekly program is available for free, but keep in mind that it’s only available for download for the week after it’s been broadcast on the air. After that, the podcast is available for $0.95 through Audible.com. (You can listen online at any time for free, but, of course, that keeps you chained to the computer for fifty minutes or so instead of allowing you to travel freely with your listening device.) If you don’t use iTunes, and your podcatcher doesn’t automatically acquire the latest installment of This American Life, you can download the MP3 file manually (find the show at the top of the radio archive and click "Free Download"). New free MP3 files are posted every Thursday, replacing the previous week’s file. (I figured this out over time because I’m obsessed with not missing a single episode.)

My second favorite program is the podcast of Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross, who, in my opinion, is the best interviewer in any current medium. She is plainly comfortable with all her subjects (famous and not), asks questions that range from standard and expected to thoughtful and spontaneous, and, as far as I know, always conducts background research meticulously. Gross is herself interviewed in Salon.comtwice, as well as a by site called Frugal Fun.

For those eager to keep abreast of current events, the Commonwealth Clubpodcast of its weekly broadcast is a must-download. Founded in 1903, the Commonwealth Club of California is the oldest and largest public affairs forum, hosting a wide variety of speakers on politics, culture, history and economics. (If you’ve missed a particular podcast, you may check the broadcast archive to listen online.) The podcasts of the speeches (which include a brief question-and-answer period with the live audience afterward) are often fascinating, and, in my mind, qualify as can’t-tear-myself-away listening. For topics of interest to the under-35 crowd, the Commonwealth Club launched INFORUM, which offers speeches by and discussion panels with rappers, actors, young activists, filmmakers, writers, and other influential personalities. A separate podcast for INFORUM is also available.

I am especially drawn to "thinking radio": audio programming that engages my mind and challenges my intellect. While "thinking" programs slow me down during exercise, they’re perfect for tedious household tasks. Two of my favorite programs are New York Public Radio’s Radio Lab, which investigates scientific and philosophical questions in a fun, conversational, almost storytelling format, and Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, which explores similar topics via interviews with various writers and experts. In addition, PRI’s The Changing World offers a series of in-depth radio documentaries, each covering a single issue affecting people around the globe.

While many long-time radio programs have recently become popular podcasts — simply because of the convenience factor for listeners — there’s a new phenomenon that happens once in a while: the creator of a popular podcast is asked to host a radio program. This happened to Emily Morse (who I should disclose is a personal acquaintance) with her podcast, Sex with Emily, a program that piques interest just via its tongue-in-cheek (so to speak) name. It’s probably not as salacious as you might think: Sex with Emily is a fun and lively discussion about sexuality and adult relationships. Topics include dating, sexual health, personal hygiene, and celebrity culture.

For computer technology enthusiasts, there’s a growing genre of short-segment podcasts that offer industry news bites. Because they’re each only a few minutes long, I tend to store them up and listen to one after another every month or so:

NPR: Technology, which combines the best tech news and digital culture reports from Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other respected NPR programs into one convenient round-up podcast.

Along with tech news, discussions about "personal productivity" is another geek fascination. One worthwhile podcast in this genre is The Merlin Show, hosted by 43 Folders creator Merlin Mann. I haven’t yet listened to Stever Robbins’s Get-It-Done Guy: Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More, but it’s garnered good reviews from iTunes listeners. And I have yet to try Gaiam’s Lime, which provides a number of audio programs that appeal to those with a "green and healthy" lifestyle.

If you’re still podcast hungry, you can build your own listening library from these podcast directories:

iTunes podcast directory (Note: The iTunes application is required — the download is free, but it can only transfer data to Apple products. Once iTunes is installed, go to the Podcasts panel and click "Podcast Directory" at the bottom.)

Thank goodness Fats Domino was found alive and well after the Katrina disaster in his native New Orleans. He was found in his home in the Ninth Ward, although some say he was actually found on Blueberry Hill. Domino is 78 years old, and despite losing his home, he’s in good spirits and still making music. He’s donating the proceeds from his latest album, Alive and Kickin’, to the Tipitina’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to rebuilding the music culture of New Orleans. On NPR’s All Things Considered, Domino demonstrates the rhythmic and tempo difference between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, a shift that occurred in popular music during the ’50s.

I hear all sorts of business ideas at the monthly Entrepreneurship Meetup — some OK but need further development, some not so good, some downright ill-conceived. At the last month’s Meetup, I met the CTO of Prosper.com, an innovative financial startup that facilitates person-to-person lending — for example, a blogger in California lending $500 to a cafe owner in Maine — via a system that CEO and E-Loan co-founder Chris Larsen hopes to become "the eBay of loans."

Prosper seemed to be in the "OK but needs further development" category of startups until I heard more about it. My first thought was, "How safe is this thing? Could I just be throwing money away to strangers asking for a ‘loan’?" Other Meetup attendees voiced similar concerns. "Are these loans in any way guaranteed?" asked the hotshot from OngoBongo (which, tangentially, may have bigger problems with the advent of Lala — or maybe not: see the update below).

(Update on OngoBongo: At a more recent Meetup, founder Eric Swan explained that OngoBongo will be the music version of NetFlix, which rents out movies from its large inventory of DVDs. Lala, on the other hand, is more akin to PeerFlix, a peer-to-peer DVD sharing system. So perhaps Swan’s biggest problem — after he secures funding for the company, of course — will be one not of competition, but of perception.)

Is Prosper safe to use?

Apparently accustomed to this basic question, the CTO addressed our concerns. First he explained that no financial investment, except for typical savings accounts, are guaranteed. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and so on are not guaranteed, and neither are personal loans to family or friends. True dat. Having said that, he continued, Prosper does have a number of standard financial "safety features" designed to make lenders feel more comfortable with sending their money out into the ether, hoping for a nice ROI.

First, all potential borrowers must submit their information for a credit check. This way, lenders can view profiles of borrowers that include their credit ratings on a scale of AA through E, plus HR (high risk) and NC (no credit), as well as their color-coded debt-to-income ratios (20% or under appears in green; over 20% appears in red). Nervous lenders can focus on borrowers with better credit and lower debt-to-income ratios (and consequently charge a lower interest rate), whereas high rollers can gamble on high-risk, high-debt borrowers for a chance at bigger returns.

Second, Prosper has developed relationships with the major credit reporting agencies, so that missed payments or defaults — as with any other relationship with a financial institution — are immediately reported. Third, borrowers have a better chance of receiving bids on their desired loans if they join a group of trusted users. If a borrower misses payments or defaults, the reputation of the entire group is at stake. Fourth, a certain number of missed payments triggers the involvement of the dreaded collection agency (lenders can choose from three reputable agencies to take over the case).

Who lends to whom?

A borrower can request a loan for up to $25,000. A la eBay, Lenders must bid on loan requests so that borrowers can compete for better interest rates. The entry point for a lender is very low: the minimum bid is $50. How is this possible? A borrower asking for, say, $5,000 can receive this amount in one lump sum from a single lender — or in $50 increments from 100 lenders, or $250 increments from 20 lenders, and so on, in a piecemeal approach.

Prosper has been up and running for about a month now, and already there are myriad borrowers and lenders doing business. I put in $200 just to see how it all works. I decided to forgo the fun but time-consuming process of browsing the list of potential borrowers and instead create a standing loan for the Prosper database to match my bids with loan-seekers who meet my comfort-zone requirements (B or better credit, debt-to-income ratio under 20%, belong to a group).

Already two borrowers have accepted my bids: one lady is starting a nifty small business; a guy is using the Prosper system to consolidate his credit card debt and pay it down at a lower rate. The latter borrower is an example of the most common reason borrowers request loans on Prosper; the system seems to have created a "sweet spot" of interest rates. For lenders, the returns are higher (and possibly safer) than many other types of investments; for borrowers, the rates are lower than those of most credit cards. I asked the CTO if Prosper could potentially supersede the credit card industry, and he responded, "That’s what we’re hoping!" Sweet.

Prosper also has potential to support low- or reasonable-rate microlending programs for poor neighborhoods, as well as investments in one’s own community. (In fact, a Google search for "microlending" garnered a sponsored listing for Prosper "people-to-people" lending — so Prosper marketers must be thinking of the potential for socially responsible investing.)

Issues and annoyances

Since the Prosper system is new — in fact, the first of its kind in the U.S. (although the first of its kind in the world may be Zopa, based in the U.K.) — it’s still working out the kinks. For example, the ability for lenders to turn off unsolicited messages from borrowers was only made available today, after many complaints about "Can I get a loan from you?" type spam. There’s no online loan calculator on the Prosper web site yet, which some Prosper employees admit was an oversight. (Update: At a more recent Meetup, Prosper’s community marketing directory told me that there is in fact a loan calculator, but she conceded that it should be accessible from a more prominent location on the site.) And it took a full seven days for my initial funds to be transferred from my bank account to Prosper — the long transfer time is another major complaint on Prosper’s lively discussion board. But overall, these are minor problems that will be addressed if Prosper stands the test of time. I believe it will.

Managing Prosper account data

Related to Prosper’s novelty is the fact that common financial management software applications like Quicken currently have no method to manage something like a Prosper account, with all of its associated data (balance of amounts borrowed, balance of amounts loaned, funds sitting in the Prosper system versus money loaned out, various interest rates on each loan, and so on). Just figuring out which type of account to use for Prosper raised some interesting questions about the nature of this financial service. Is it a loan? An investment? A series of loans and investments? An asset? A credit card account for borrowers using Prosper to consolidate their consumer debt?

The fact is, it can be any one — or a combination — of these things. Until the Prosper model is understood (and accepted) by Intuit, Microsoft and other financial management software developers, we hapless users have to create our own spreadsheets to manage our account data, or make awkward adjustments to existing account management systems. Because I’m only lending (and not borrowing) funds, I chose the "Brokerage" account in Quicken and used the generic "Transferred Cash In" to register my deposits into the Prosper system (I’ll use "Interest Income" to register the net earnings).

We are family

Perhaps what I like most about Prosper is its ability to humanize every member of a giant, scattered, diverse group of people — much like the internet itself. The borrower profiles are full of fun photos of people or their pet projects (like the vintage muscle car that one guy wants to fix up for $5,000), personal stories and compelling descriptions of hopes and dreams for the future. And in this age of record consumer debt — making some people too broke even to declare bankruptcy — Prosper’s straightforward interface and person-to-person lending system seems like a refreshing prospect.

I couldn’t stop listening to the documentary about cell phones, which Europeans call "mobile phones." The program explores the history behind, uses of and cultural phenomena surrounding the over two billion mobile phones in use around the planet. How is the mobile phone changing the lives of the poor? Are mobile phone conversations secure? What is considered acceptable behavior of mobile phone use in various countries?

If this got you thinking about your own cell phone use, you may want to bookmark these guides to cell phone etiquette:

The O.C. character Summer Roberts describedThis American Life as the "…[radio] show where those hipster know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are." Albeit an accurate description, I enjoy Ira Glass’s stories nonetheless. "In the Shadow of the City" (aired February 3, 2006) sent me on an emotional roller coaster ride. “Act One” — a story about literally getting shipwrecked in the archipelago of New York City — made me laugh so hard that I temporarily lost control of a certain bodily function and had to change my pants. I think what did it for me was: “…I got a little mad at the city of New York. I could understand if they had just one pay phone there, or at least, I don’t know, like a button to press to know that you’re there, you know?” (16 minutes, 42 seconds) — as well as the absurd image of fashioning slippers or a raft out of ducks (18 minutes, 32 seconds).

I had the exact opposite reaction to "Act Two," a sobering personal description of the post-Katrina cleanup nightmare in New Orleans. And "Act Three" simply made me crave chocolate.

Philosophy Talk: A couple of Stanford University professors discuss one broad, intriguing topic — such as time, happiness, forgiveness, virtue, propaganda, science, free will, democracy, beauty and so on — each week on a public radio program.

ScienceBlogs: A central location for a variety of science-oriented blogs, from fun stuff like Uncertain Principles (physics, politics, pop culture) to more obscure subjects like Aetiology (the causes, origins, evolution and implications of disease and other phenomena). My favorite is Cognitive Daily, because it’s like reading about a brain teaser every day.